


Silence

by lustig



Category: Metal Fight Beyblade | Beyblade: Metal Fusion
Genre: Gen, MFB Secret Santa 2k18, Mental Health Issues, Panic Attacks, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-25
Updated: 2019-01-25
Packaged: 2019-10-16 06:00:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17544053
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lustig/pseuds/lustig
Summary: Christmas is coming closer and Tsubasa sits at home, studying – or trying to. His dark side is making it increasingly difficult when Yuu comes around and whisks him away for a tour over the Christmas Market in town, including a small unofficial Beyblade tournament for youngsters.Tsubasa is very reluctant at first, but slowly realises that Yuu knew exactly what was in his head and decided to get his thoughts on different tracks with this little tour.





	Silence

**Author's Note:**

  * For [nihilisten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/nihilisten/gifts).



> This fic is dedicated to Yuki, [earthaquila](https://earthaquila.tumblr.com) on tumblr.  
> It is my gift to her as part of the MFB Secret Santa 2k18.

 

The Dragon was whispering again.

 

Tsubasa closed his eyes, frustrated, tired, exhausted. He had been studying for hours, day after day after day. Exams were coming closer, and he _wasn’t ready_.

 

He needed to learn. He needed to understand. He needed to _know_.

 

And The Dragon told him to just give it up, to throw it away, let it go, just go and _cheat_ his way through the exams.

 

 

 

His friends had written to him, one after the other, throughout the afternoon. They asked him to come with them to the centre, visit the market there with its silly knick-knacks and mulled wine. He had declined, told them he didn’t have the time.

 

_I don’t, stop telling me differently._

 

They thought he had gotten over his Dark Side when he emerged out of his inner battle during the World Championship, years ago. They thought he had destroyed it, made it succumb to him. And there was probably only one person besides him who knew better. And he, conveniently, didn’t show any interest in getting in contact with Tsubasa.

 

_“You can’t fight it. You must become one with it, understand?”_

The Dragon was part of him, always would be. The fact that he had learned not to listen to it, not to fight it didn’t mean his dark side simply ceased to exist.

 

They didn’t understand. They couldn’t understand.

 

His hand trembled, the grip on the pen far too tight, and an ugly line crossed over his notes. With pure will, he forced his hand open and dropped the pen, leaning backwards and letting his head loop over the backrest of the chair.

 

The world was upside down, the window behind him showing a cloudy sky, slow and soft falling snowflakes. His eagle was somewhere out there, hunting. If it didn’t find game it would come back, asking him with a low chirrup for some food and rubbing its soft head against his cheek after being fed a chunk of meat.

 

Tsubasa smiled, letting himself daydream, just for a moment.

 

 

 

The doorbell rang, disrupting him from his idle musings. He flinched, his bad conscious about procrastinating his learning rearing up with an ugly hiss.

 

The Dragon was laughing.

 

The doorbell rang again.

 

“I’m coming!”

 

Tsubasa stood up, sighing soundlessly, and stepped towards the door, neither checking the camera before pressing the buzzer and opening the door nor waiting for his visitor before getting back to the table.

 

Before he could get reinvested in the material, Yuu stepped through the entrance, snowflakes melting in his hair and his eyes wide and beaming.

 

“Thought I would find you here! You haven’t answered any of my messages.”

 

Yuu shrugged out of his jacket, shaking the snow out of his hair and kept grinning widely at Tsubasa.

 

The silver-haired blader was frowning.

 

“I’m busy, Yuu. What do you want?”

 

On other days he might have been sorry for his brusque request. Right now, he was too frustrated with himself and his inability to get any significant work done.

 

“Eh, you’re learning again, huh? Shouldn’t you be prepared by now? You must have been at it for _weeks_ now.”

  
“There is a lot of stuff to revise. If I want to–”

 

“When did you last take a break?” Yuu interrupted him before he could continue. “ _Really_  took a break I mean. Sleeping and eating don’t count. I know from Gingki that you have rebuffed all his questions, too.”

 

Tsubasa had the grace to look slightly ashamed. He was tired.

 

Yuu sat down on one of the chairs, swinging his legs as soon as his feet left the ground. He had hidden a growth spurt, not a while back, but he was still pretty short for someone his age. His green eyes were focused on Tsubasa, something akin to worry swirling in them.

 

The older boy sighed and buried one of his hands in his hair.

 

“I am not sure,” he answered finally, honestly.

 

“Then you are going to take one now. No, you’re not allowed to protest. It’s snowing outside, there is a Christmas market in town, and you were rude to your friends which means you hit a dead end. Now come.”

 

Tsubasa knew better than to argue with his blonde friend and grabbed his winter jacket without any further protest. The Dragon was radiating smugness, but he felt no connection to it, the reason for him stopping to learn – for now, he promised himself – not the constant nagging of the darkness.

 

 

~

 

 

“Ohh!”

 

Tsubasa let himself be pulled to the next booth, nipping on the cup of hot punch Yuu had pressed into his hands a few minutes ago. It was... nice. He was still on edge, still feeling the pull to go back and continue studying, but the fresh air cleared his mind and the cold was burning on his cheeks, and there was a pleasant buzz of noises all around him, droning out the voice of the Dragon inside him.

 

And Yuu didn’t give him any time to think, anyway.

 

The blonde blader was like an over-excited puppy, running from one side of the market to the next, spending his pocket money on sweets and other small, silly things he enjoyed. He didn’t ask anything of Tsubasa, just his company, sometimes a word or two when he couldn’t decide what he wanted on his own.

 

He felt himself relaxing, the strain he had put on himself finally receding a little.

 

He knew he could do it, finish studying to ace his exams in time. Now he couldn’t even remember why he had started to listen to his Dragon in the first place.

 

He could do this.

 

Tsubasa turned to Yuu, not entirely sure what to say but he knew the boy deserved some kind of thanks for tearing him out of his way into darkness, again, but before he could even open his mouth, Yuu pulled him into a crowd of people, easily making them enough room to reach the front rows.

 

A small Beyblade arena was built there, nothing special, maybe three or four metres wide, a heated battle in progress.

 

“It’s an unofficial amateur battle,” Yuu explained quietly, his attention otherwise focused on the two Beys, rushing behind each other on the border of the arena. “I read about it in the announcement of the market. Nothing WBBA related, the organisers of the market set it all up, the winner gets a basket with Christmas sweets or something.”

 

“Go now! Sagittario!” one of the two fighters, a fierce-looking girl with piercing grey eyes and sandy blonde hair shouted. The rear Bey seemed to get a little boost and sped towards the other one, starting a kind of barrage attack against it.

 

The other Bey managed to keep its balance but decided to leave the border of the arena for a lower circle, after a short gesture of its owner. It wasn’t enough to escape the barrage attack, though.

 

“Capricorn! Faster! You can do it, I know you can!” the dark-haired boy shouted encouragingly, his brown eyes focused only on his Bey.

 

The hunted Bey sudden got faster, ran away from its opponent, but the Sagittario simply cut off its run and crossed through the middle of the arena, crashing against the Capricorn’s side and pushing it near the top border again.

 

The Capricorn used its newly-won speed to jump away from the Sagittario with the rink as help, and started a counter-attack from above, managing to unbalance the Sagittario for a moment, but not long enough to actually finish him.

 

“With the 105 spin track the Sagittario has a very low mass centre,” Tsubasa observed, “low enough to counter-act the missing balance factor of the S performance tip.”

 

“You can see the parts from here?” Yuu asked surprised, his gaze torn away from the fight and to the silver-haired blader by his side.

 

“I’m learning it, yes. It’s part of the studies I chose to pursue in order to help the WBBA as good as possible. If I see correctly, the girl’s Bey is a Cyclone Sagittario 105 S, attack type with decent stamina, and the other a Flame Capricorn CH120 FS. High stamina, good balance and a little attack power.”

 

“Wow,” Yuu laughed, “that’s really impressive. Who do you think will win? Which one is the better Bey?”

 

Tsubasa smiled at his companion, then turned his eyes back to the fight. The Sagittario had fully regained his balance again, but it was moving slower already. It still managed to disrupt the way of the Capricorn with small attacks, and unlike the boy, the girl still seemed pretty confident and in control.

 

“Technically, the Capricorn has more potential. With its spin track, it could easily adapt its fighting techniques depending on the opponent. But the blader doesn’t seem to be aware of that. I don’t think he stands a chance against the girl in this battle. He tries to counter her attack type with his attack potential instead of his strong stamina. If he wanted, he could simply evade the attacks, tiring the Sagittario out, either into a sleep-out or finishing him off with his attack power once the Sagittario’s stamina is sufficiently depleted.”

 

“What makes his spin track so special?” Yuu asked, his brows drawn together in concentration, trying to see what Tsubasa was talking about.

 

“The CH120 is a height-changing track. It’s either 120 and thus stronger in attack because of the lower mass centre, or 145 and better in stamina, while making it easier to dodge attacks from Beys with shorter spin tracks, like this Sagittario. But right now the Capricorn is still fighting on the 120 level, making it all the more easy to be hit.”

 

“Now! Sagittario! Smash him away!” the girl shouted, fist bumping forwards while a grey fire seemed to grow around the Sagittario. It smashed against the Capricorn, too shocked by the sudden change to escape the attack, and send it flying, out of the arena.

 

The Capricorn landed not far behind its owner in the snow, the boy casting a dejected look at his Bey before going over there and picking it up, head bend downwards while the girl caught her Sagittario with a triumphant shout.

 

Tsubasa automatically walked towards the young boy, standing outside of the group of happily bubbling watchers who started congratulating the girl while she got her well-deserved price. He didn’t look if Yuu was following. Right now it was more important to make sure the boy didn’t grow resentful because of one lost fight, the way he looked like he wanted to right now.

 

“Hey kid,” Tsubasa greeted him, and the dark-haired head snapped around, staring at Tsubasa with growing disbelief and astonishment.

 

“You’re Tsubasa,” he observed. A desperate edge stole itself into his eyes as if he feared being ridiculed for having lost or something comparable.

 

“I am, yeah. I wanted to compliment on the Bey work you displayed just a moment ago. You have great control over your Capricorn, and his speed is truly impressive,” he started. The boy’s eyes grew bigger and bigger.

 

“But I lost! I wasn’t good enough!”

 

“You did, but you have some serious potential. I just saw that you didn’t use your biggest advantage in your fight, and I wanted to ask if you simply forgot about it or just weren’t aware of it?”

 

The kid grew silent.

 

“What do you mean?” he asked,finally, his hand clamped around the Capricorn.

 

“Your spin track can change heights.”

 

“I know, but it’s useless. When I’m taller it’s harder to attack, and if I get attacked I lose my balance more easily.”

 

Tsubasa smiled at him.

 

“Well observed, yes. But your Bey is not strong enough in either defence or attack to be able to hold yourself in a direct fight against another attack type. As you had to experience just now. The shorter track surely is more useful in a fight against a balance or stamina type Beyblade, but if you want to hold your own against an attack type, you have to tire them out, which is what your Bey is made for, really.”

 

“I tried that, against that Sagittarius,” he bristled. “She still hit me all the time because she just got in my way.”

 

“Have you ever thought about eluding your enemies attacks? You might have to change your performance tip for that, into something where it’s easier to tilt without losing balance, but with the added height of your spin track, it would make it very easy to tire your opponents out. Let them get close, start an attack, move out of the way just the barest fraction and run away again. Attack types are not meant to keep running after you. So if you manage to evade, you can take control of the situation, and when you see that your opponent is tired out, you can switch back to attack height and finish them.”

 

“That is. Wow. I never thought of that,” the boy breathed, opening his hand and staring down on the red Capricorn.

 

“I always feel like evading is something only cowards do.” He looked up again. “But you are one of the world’s best bladers. If you say running is okay, I will try it. Thank you.” A tentative smile pulled at the corners of the kid’s mouth.

  
“You should go to the girl now and congratulate her on her win. It was a good fight. I enjoyed watching it.”

 

“Will do!” The kid beamed at him, his grip on his Bey strong and steady again, and he turned around and made his way through the crowd.

 

“That was really nice of you,” Yuu observed, and Tsubasa looked to his companion, standing only a few metres away, half hidden by the crowd but now strolling over, obviously having observed at least parts of the exchange. “He looks completely changed.”

 

“He has talent, and sometimes you need people to believe in you to actually realise that yourself.”

 

“Yeah. And who better to give that reassurance than one of the World Beyblade Champions, huh? I talked to the girl, too. She was totally astonished that we watched her. Told her she could probably turn both her barrage attack and the little smash she did in the end into special moves if she keeps working on them. She looked like Father Christmas himself had come down to congratulate her on her win.” The blonde boy laughed.

 

“Wanna grab another cup of punch? I’m kind of cold.”

 

 

~

 

 

They got back to Tsubasa’s apartment long after nightfall, both drunk on fresh air and Christmas spirit, smiling and relaxed. Yuu had finally managed to persuade Tsubasa to try a few of the more exotic sweets he had found on the market, and they were so sweet Tsubasa still felt a tingle in his teeth when he thought about them.

 

“Do you want to come in and warm up before you go home?” he asked, opening the door.

 

“Nah, thanks. My family is probably already missing me, I didn’t exactly tell them how long I would stay out. But usually, they assume nightfall. So yeah, I should get going.”

 

Yuu smiled at him, then turned around and made his way down the little pathway to the road, raising his hand in greeting.

 

“Yuu,” Tsubasa called, softly.

 

“Huh?” The blonde blader stopped, looking back.

 

“I… I wanted to say thank you. For taking me out today. I… I guess I really needed a break after all. I feel a lot better now.”

 

Yuu grinned at him, the smile softening his eyes.

 

“Sure thing. That’s what friends are for, after all, right? Saving you from yourself and stuff. Taking care of you when you forget it yourself.”

 

When Tsubasa only frowned, he elaborated: “You sound different, in your messages, when you’re under great stress. I don’t know how to describe it, exactly, but to me it feels like the time during the championship when you were possessed by the dark spirit Ryuga had left you with.”

 

Yuu’s smile receded, and his expression was more earnest than before.

 

“Are you okay, Tsubasa? Because it doesn’t happen often, but it’s not the first time I felt this change in your writing style. I know the others try to write to you too, but they don’t seem bothered by you not answering them or answering without your usual eloquence.”

 

“Yuu…”

 

“If you need someone to talk, like, ever, I am here for you, okay? No matter what for. You’re the only one of us who is really starting to build his own life, and it must feel strange to live so differently from the rest of us, now. But I don’t want to lose your friendship over university exams or something, alright?”

 

Yuu went back over to Tsubasa, still standing on his doorstep. He grinned up at him and boxed him in his side, friendly and familiar.

 

“Hey, don’t make that face. You look like you’re going all sentimental on me. I’m not gone yet. And I don’t plan on letting your bad moods scare me away anytime soon. But I really have to go home now. I’ll write you when I’m home, alright?”

 

“Alright,” Tsubasa agreed, nearly soundless.

 

With a spring in his step, Yuu went back down to the street, stopping one last time on the border of the ground to turn around and smirk at his older friend: “Merry Christmas!”

 

Then he dashed away.

 

 

~

 

 

The apartment was warm; Tsubasa hadn’t turned down the heating before going out. His books and notes were still spread widely on the table, a mess he would have found unacceptable in every other case.

 

He smiled at the notes, exhausted and pleasantly numb, and went to the kitchen to make himself a tea. He wouldn’t continue studying today. He would drink a cuppa and then go to sleep. Tomorrow was another day, throwing a different light on his studies, he was sure of it.

 

Snow was falling quietly, refreshing the white cover outside and huddling the whole country in a soft blanket.

 

And the Dragon was silent at last.


End file.
